Posted May 30, 2014
At the House Appropriations Committee, Republicans moved forward with the plan to offer school districts a one-year waiver to opt out of improved nutrition standards, promoted by Michelle Obama, according to an article on Politico by David Rogers available here. The New York Times also published an article available here, Washington Post here, and NPR here. A previous blog post on school lunch program is available here.
The action was a result of the panel approving $142.5 billion farm and food safety budget for the coming year, including $20.9 billion in new discretionary appropriations for the operations of the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration.
In 2012, the Obama administration announced new rules to add more fruits and green vegetables to school breakfasts and lunches and reduce the amount of salt and fat in school lunches 31 million children participate in each day, according to NY Times.
Some school districts in Wisconsin, New York, and Illinois have complained that the healthy school lunch standards are too challenging, and they require more time to limit calories and fat and incorporate more vegetables, and some lawmakers agree, according to NPR.
“Everyone supports healthy meals for children,” Representative Aderholt, Republican of Alabama and chairman of the House of appropriations agriculture subcommittee, said. “But the bottom line is that schools are finding it’s too much, too quick,” according to NY Times.
Representative Sam Farr of California sponsored an amendment that would remove the waiver from the budget bill, but it was defeated 29-to-22 after a lengthy two-hour debate.
“This waiver gives schools an out, saying you don’t have to do healthy school meals if it’s hard,” Rep. Farr said.
The School Nutrition Association (SNA), which represents school food administrators and is supported by food service manufacturers, supports the waiver. They estimated that about a million fewer students participated in the school lunch program last year, partially due to new federal requirements, according to NPR.
“A temporary waiver would ease the burden on school meal programs, preventing more schools from dropping out of the National School Lunch Program altogether,” SNA President Leah Schmidt wrote in a release supporting the waiver.
“Forcing students to take a food they don’t want on their tray has led to increased program costs, plate waste, and a decline in student participation,” the SNA said in a statement.
The new rules were a major component of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign to reduce the number of obese children through exercise and better nutrition. On Thursday, Mrs. Obama wrote an Op-Ed articlein The New York Times about “attempts in Congress to undo so much of what we’ve accomplished on behalf of our children.”
Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, the claims that nutrition rules led to decline in schools participating in lunch and breakfast programs were misleading, and that the rules had no effect on food waste, which has been an issue since 2007, before the nutrition standards were introduced.
The rules are the first changes in 15 years to the $11 billion school lunch program.
SNA has been asking Congress to provide more flexibility under the school food standards to help increase student consumption of healthy choices available while limiting waste. To read SNA’s requests, click here.
For more information on school lunch and nutrition programs, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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